Thursday, 29 October 2009

Edible Education

This week, we have mostly been cooking (and eating :-))

Both boys helped make our family's famous lentil soup recipe. Granny was quite impressed when she came round and saw the production line going - Waif peeling carrots, me chopping them into strips then Gman dicing them! This soup is dead easy to make, very healthy, gluten and dairy free, vegetarian and really, really delicious. Here's the recipe:

Easy Lentil Soup (serves 4-6)

150g lentils

1 onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, peeled and diced

2 tins chopped tomatoes

1.2 litres vegetable stock

1 tbsp cumin powder

1 tsp garam masala

Chuck it all in a massive pan, bring it to the boil, then cook until the lentils are cooked and the carrots are as soft as you like them (about 30-40 minutes depending on how finely you dice the carrots).

Waif was also keen to help with the roasted vegetables for dinner and spent some time carefully arranging them in the roasting tin until they were "just right". He then insisted on taking a photograph so here they are:

Granny also brought us round some fantastic looking cooking apples from the market. There were only 2, but they were pretty massive so probably about a pound in weight, maybe even more. Fancying a change from the usual apple crumble, we made this pudding and it went down a treat:

Gluten Free Casein Free Almond Apple Pudding

1lb cooking apples, stewed in a little caster sugar

2oz golden caster sugar

2oz dairy free margarine

2oz ground almonds

1 egg, beaten

Cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the ground almonds.

Beat the egg into the almond mixture.

Place the stewed apples into an ovenproof dish.

Spoon the almond mixture over the top of the apples.

Bake at Gas Mark 4/350F/180C for about 25-35 mins until the top is lightly set and golden.